Summer Adventure

Old friends and new friends, add a post or picture with your summer adventures. I look forward to seeing your days at the beach, reading by the pool, and flights to adventurous places. If you are having trouble adding a post or picture, email it to me at jklipfel@middletonps.org and I will add it for you. Happy summer days!

Goodbye Friends

Dear Fourth Grade Families,

Fourth grade sure was easy!

It's finally here-summer! This school year sure has been one for the record books. Today, I officially give you back the same child from the fall, a few inches taller, a few months wiser, and much more mature. Although this growth would have happened anyway, it has been my pleasure to watch and be a part of their year. I am overwhelmingly proud of each and every one of them.

One last thank you to all the students for their continuous hard work this school year. You rocked it and we had so many laughs along the way! Thank you also to the parents, grandparents, and relatives for all your support and encouragement from home, as well as, all our faithful blog followers.

Enjoy your days at the beach and nights by the BBQ. Don't forget to post your summer adventures on our summer padlet or send me an email jklipfel@middletonps.org with what you are up to. I love nothing more than getting notes and postcards too! This summer, don't forget to READ, READ, READ. Need a book recommendation or want to chat about a great read, just send me a message. You know I LOVE talking books.

We have truly lived, loved, laughed, and learned together this year. I wish it could continue but each and every one of you is ready for next year. Remember, I will always be interested in your future, wherever you go, whatever you do. Your joys and sorrows I will always be happy to share, so please make sure to keep me in the loop for many years to come. Until we meet again!

Love always,
Miss Klipfel

      Hello 4th Graders                                  Goodbye My Good Friends

Patagonia Expedition Guide

Written by Guest Blogger Josie

Hi! Today I’m going to tell you about our JDO Patagonia book. For those of you who don’t know, JDO is a program for schools that match you with a classroom around the world. Our classroom was paired with a classroom in Dublin, Ireland. We have been doing fun projects this whole year, and the Patagonia book was one of them.

The whole reason we’re doing this project is because of Miss Klipfel’s National Geographic Lindblad expedition. Miss Klipfel applied to be a National Geographic Grosvenor Teacher Fellow. The whole idea is to send teachers to remote places so they can teach more people about them. She was one of the fifty teachers who got selected out of like, hundreds! Miss Klipfel is going to be sent to the far reaches of South America. She’ll be sent to remote islands, and see lots of other cool areas while she travels to Patagonia.

Patagonia is somewhere in the far South of South America, and to be honest, not a lot of people know about it. That’s when we got the great idea to do a JDO project about it! We started with a Padlet to figure about what we already knew about Patagonia which was pretty much nothing and brainstorm things we were curious about. 

We met over Zoom to begin researching and planning our book together. Like with other projects, we split into groups and got assigned specific sections. I got assigned the introduction, and-but enough about me! It took us close to a month to finish, but we finally did. 

Miss Klipfel also added a new section to her blog dedicated to her National Geographic expedition, so she can inform everyone about all the places they probably haven’t heard of. 

Click here to Explore with Miss Klipfel

Anyway, the Patagonia book is going to be shared with people from all different places, and inform them about a not so known place. We even made a K-2 edition for younger students to be able to read and learn about Patagonia. Check out the book and learn about Patagonia too!

This project was by far one of the most fun I have ever participated in, and I am proud to have been part of teaching people about Patagonia!

Comic-Con 2023

Deep in the halls of Howe-Manning, students have been showing their true superpowers. By day you know them as Howe-Manning 4th-grade students but when problems arise they turn into superheroes. Some are able to leap Howe-Manning in a single bound while others are able to stop a speeding monkey. They are all here to eliminate crime one diabolical villain at a time!

Over the last month, students have been preparing for Comic-Con. Students reviewed parts of plot and watched clips of past and present superheroes/villains to then create their very own. Check out all the published 4th grade comics here.

Dressed from head to toe students, families, and friends met to share all their SUPER work for our annual Comic-Con event. 

This year we added handheld vintage video games thanks to Artovation with Ms. Nassar and a full-size bat mobile thanks to Innovation with Mrs. Deeley. 

The Amazing Race Across the West

Written by guest blogger Leo

The Cheez Sticks. The Alaskan Huskies. The Piggy Bananas. The Corgi-bat-pandas. The Ratty Rats. The Cheez sticks got their clue. Thirty seconds ‘tIll the next team gets theirs. It’s The Amazing Race. The Amazing Race is during social studies, and everybody is so excited about it.  “This state was the first to allow women to vote,” Hmm. The next team gets their clue. Everybody is trying to find the location where the answer is. “Wyoming!” Owen yells. Oops. Everybody pins it on Google Earth. They all race to Miss Klipfel to get theirs checked first. 

Then teams are given roadblocks to complete, like writing a paragraph about how wolves are important to Yellowstone. We all use Google Earth and National Geographic resources to help. For our roadblocks in Alaska, you could also make a poster about the Idatroid race racers. We also get detours that we can pick between. In Hawaii, you could make a Hawaiian Leis necklace, or learn to dance the hula. At the end of Hawaii, we limboed. 

When you got the last roadblock/detour done, when you check in with Miss Klipfel on the mat. As a team we all jump on a blue mat. We all had a lot of fun doing it too! This is The Amazing Race.

Golden Dome

Written by guest bloggers Shawn & Joey

The State House was so fun to visit. Let me tell you ALL about it! First, we went on a bus from Howe Manning to the State House. When we arrived at the State House we saw… The GOLDEN Dome! It was so shiny and did you know that the golden dome is made out of 23k Gold. Did you know that more than a thousand people work at the State House?

When we went into the State House we had to go through security and there were big gates in front of the State House to keep it safe. There is a nice beautiful garden in front of the State House. When we got through security we had to walk up so many stairs. Then we went under the Golden Dome and under the Golden Dome is the Senate room. There are two fake fish that give you good luck. One is Under the Golden Dome on a chandelier called the Holy Mackeral (pictured below on the left) and one is in the House Chambers called the Scared Cod (pictured below on the right). 

Representative Jones got us special permission to go on the Senate balcony (see picture above). It is a spectacular view of Boston. We then headed over to the House of Representatives Chambers. The House floor is where the House of Representatives works to make laws and take votes. We got to sit in the House seat and even got to stay while the House went into session. It was pretty cool that we got to lead the pledge for the MA House of Representatives session. 

While we were on the House floor, Representatives Jones and Representative Keran surprised Miss Klipfel with a citation from the MA House of Representatives. When Miss Klipfel got a citation everyone clapped. It was so loud and everyone was so happy for her. The reason she got it is that she got selected as a National Geographic Grosvenor Teacher Fellow for all the amazing teaching she does for us and gets to go on a National Geographic Lindblad expedition to Patagonia. After that, we took a picture on the grand staircase with both representatives and Sentate Tarr. We were supposed to go to the swan boats but it was raining so we went back on the bus to head to Howe Manning.